Sunday, 20 January 2013

The Mountain Glide

Jennospot 91 The Mountain Glide

Yew
wouldn't fink it, if'n yew were ter come all casual loike ter Widdlin'ton, that
the whole village (that is ter say all the kids) are dead keen on soapbox
racin'. Widdlin'ton is in a valley, see, wiv the river runnin' along the
bottom, so on either soide there are slopes wot are pretty 'andy fer ridin'
down in soapboxes.

Any'ow,
up on the east side, where the slope is steepest there are several old
quarries, an' the one just above Lions Avenue where Peter lives is the biggest.
They used ter get gravel out of it, but it ain't been worked fer quite a while
now, not since Oi c'n remember any'ow. Down the soide of this 'ere quarry
there's a steep slope wot we call the Mountain Glide. An' when Oi say steep, Oi
mean it's real steep. When yew stan' at the top lookin' down, yew c'n get giddy
real easy if'n yew ain't used ter it.

There's
anuvver zigzag place wot we call The Zigzag wiv a capital Z, It's a path at the
side of the quarry where lorries used ter go up an' down. But Oi don't reckon
as 'ow no lorries c'd go there no more, 'cos parts of the path 'ave been washed
away by the rain. It's okay fer racin' down though, 'cos we've done some repairs
ter the worst bits. It makes an int'restin' change from racin' down the glide,
'cos it's a bit narrer in parts, as well as 'avin' ter go a bit careful over the
roughest bits. That aside, it ain't bad fer learners neither.

We
go racin' often an' there's a whole lot about our soapbox cart racin' in Peter
St John's "Gang" books. Oi got a racin' cart wot's called Emmeline P,
an' Oi've raced 'er a few toimes down the Mountain Glide, an' down the Zigzag.
So if'n yew like excitin' racin' stories yew c'd do worse 'n take a look at http://www.peterstjohn.net/index_12.htm
an' go exploring from there. There's some pictures an' all. There's even one of
me…